Bakersfield College’s Francisco Mejia finished first for BC and 31st overall out of 339 men in the 4-mile cross country race at Mt. San Antonio College’s invitational on Oct. 16. Francisco’s time was 22 minutes, 41 seconds. Teammate Robert Quintero finished second for BC and 72nd overall.

The BC men placed 19th out of 33 teams with team time of 2:03. Orange Coast College placed first with a team time of 1:50.59.

Southwestern’s Dahir Mohamed finished first overall with a time of 21:10.

Nina Moore of Glendale finished first overall with a time of 17:42 in the women’s 5-kilometer race.

The BC women finished 25th out of 32 teams.

At the Western State Conference preview meet on Oct. 9 at L.A. Valley, the BC men finished eighth place out of 12 and Qunitero finished first for BC with a time of 22:29 and not far behind was Mejia with a 22:50.25 finish.

In the women’s 4-K, BC’s Melinda Magee finished 44th out of 98 with a 7:23 finish. Teammate Habebo Emnet finished 49th with a 7:33 finish.

The BC cross country teams travel to Cuesta for the WSC finals Oct. 27 and to Mt. SAC Nov. 6 for Southern California finals.

BC coach Dave Frickel said about the runners and future meets, “I think the guys have been pretty good. Hopefully, we will run well at the [Oct. 27] conference meet to get to run back at Mt. SAC [Nov. 6] again.”

Frickel also said about the women, “Emily popped back, she was number one for us this week.

“Emnet was second and Melinda was third. They’re shifting – maybe that’s good, maybe they’re getting competitive with each other,” said Frickel proudly.